NetSuite OneWorld Strikes a Powerful Chord for School of Rock

SAN MATEO, Calif., March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP software suites, today announced that youth music educator School of Rock has consolidated their 67 subsidiaries onto the NetSuite OneWorld solution. NetSuite OneWorld, the first and only cloud-based solution for seamless consolidation of multi-national and multi-subsidiary enterprises, enabled School of Rock to establish streamlined, consistent business practices in each location. This predictability and visibility gives School of Rock the firm operational foundation it needs to meet the aggressive growth targets set by School of Rock's new venture capital partners to expand rapidly to more than 300 locations throughout North America and Mexico.

In addition to relying on NetSuite OneWorld for multi-subsidiary financial consolidation, accounting, reporting and analytics, School of Rock also leverages many other aspects of NetSuite OneWorld's integrated capabilities to automate its global business processes. For example, School of Rock is using customer relationship management functionality from tracking potential students, managing student contact information, class registration, calendar for classes, to email campaigns to the members and to allowing parents to communicate with the school via the customer center.

NetSuite has been serving the needs of educational institutions of all sizes and has been delivering significant economies of scale for organizations spanning pre-school to post-secondary and specialty job training. NetSuite OneWorld's multi-subsidiary consolidation is a perfect fit for schools and school districts which must manage key business processes including accounting, purchasing, payroll, customer relationship management in multiple global locations. In addition to School of Rock, education customers such as EdTec, and Hampton City Schools are all productive, successful users of NetSuite. Nobel Learning, a publicly-held operator of over 150 private schools throughout the United States, is another education entity that uses NetSuite to run its key business operations from financials and revenue recognition to CRM capabilities such as inquiry/tracking of potential parents/students as well as activities, and a customer center that allows parents to pay online. Knowledge Universe, a global education company with over 3,700 locations interacting with more than five million students daily, relies on NetSuite OneWorld for its enterprise global financial management needs.

Based in Teaneck, NJ, School of Rock has been teaching kids for more than 10 years with the deep-rooted belief that the best way to learn music is to play music. The school gets students from the lesson room to the stage, developing both their confidence and musicianship with programs designed for all skill levels. School of Rock currently has 66 locations across the US and Mexico with two-thirds of the schools running as franchises. Prior to NetSuite, each location had its own unique technology hairball of small-business accounting systems and niche membership management systems. With new investors on board and an aggressive franchising growth target of over 300 schools, it became clear that in order to grow and thrive via franchising, School of Rock would need visibility, consistency, and predictability to grow. NetSuite has now helped School of Rock to fine tune and streamline its operations and back-office processes for its company and franchise schools.  

Adopting NetSuite OneWorld provides School of Rock with back-office excellence that matches its musical acumen. NetSuite OneWorld gives School of Rock the finely tuned processes and technology needed to run a growing, thriving business, without the headaches and expense of building and maintaining an extensive IT department. Instead of spending virtually all of their time scrubbing and integrating data, business analysts can now work on actively improving School of Rock's operating model. The central finance team has day-to-day visibility into all cash flow activities, and each school has a defined, consistent set of practices to follow. Planned expansion to employ NetSuite Customer Portal is expected to make it easier for parents to directly manage their own billing changes, improving customer service and efficiency. Aggressive plans to quadruple the number of Schools of Rock throughout North America have been made easier now that the company has found the perfect accompanying players.

The implementation proceeded rapidly from a mid-July pilot through a staged rollout, finishing with the company's franchise locations in December 2010. Because NetSuite is browser-based, the fact that some School of Rock locations run on Macs is no problem. The system can easily be configured by the finance team, and all changes are immediately available in each school, without expensive consultants and lengthy software rollout. School of Rock completely cut ties with on-premise software by creating a cloud-based system for student membership and course enrollment information. That solution is fully integrated with NetSuite, ensuring fast, accurate invoicing and payment processing.

"We were delivering great lessons and have a great brand, but behind the scenes it was whiteboards and spreadsheets, and there was no way we could grow with that," said Scott Drath, School of Rock CFO. "NetSuite gives us the infrastructure we need to support the growth of the company. And, besides, we don't want to be in the IT business, we want to teach kids how to rock."

To join the NetSuite and School of Rock conversation on Twitter, follow @NetSuite and @SchoolofRockUSA, respectively.

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com.

For more information about School of Rock, please visit www.schoolofrock.com.

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SOURCE NetSuite Inc.